FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 6 1 1 



by sending them food down the river. Those who 

 perished were mostly slaves, and others seemed to think 

 that their masters onght to pay for their relief. The 

 sufferers were chiefly among those natives who inhabit 

 the delta, and who are subject to the Portuguese. They 

 are in a state of slavery, but are kept on farms and mildly 

 treated. Many yield a certain rental of grain only to 

 their owners, and are otherwise free. Bight thousand 

 are said to have perished. Major Sicard lent me a boat 

 which had been built on the river, and sent also Lieutenant 

 Miranda to conduct me to the coast. 



A Portuguese lady who had come with her brother 

 from Lisbon, having been suffering for some days from 

 a severe attack of fever, died about 3 o'clock in the morning 

 of the 20th of April. The heat of the body having continued 

 unabated till 6 o'clock, I was called in, and found her 

 bosom quite as warm as I ever did in a living case of fever. 

 This continued for three hours more. As I had never 

 seen a case in which fever-heat continued so long after 

 death, I delayed the funeral until unmistakeable symptoms 

 of dissolution occurred. She was a widow, only twenty- 

 two years of age, and had been ten years in Africa. I 

 attended the funeral in the evening, and was struck by 

 the custom of the country. A number of slaves preceded 

 us, and fired off many rounds of gunpowder in front of 

 the body. When a person of much popularity is buried, 

 all the surrounding chiefs send deputations to fire over 

 the grave. On one occasion at Tete, more than thirty 

 barrels of gunpowder w T ere expended. Early in the 

 morning of the 21st the slaves of the deceased lady's 

 brother went round the village making a lamentation, 

 and drums w T ere beaten all day, as they are at such times 

 among the heathen. 



The Commandant provided for the journey most abun- 

 dantly, and gave orders to Lieutenant Miranda that I 

 should not be allowed to pay for anything all the way 

 to the coast, and sent messages to his friends Senhors 

 Ferrao, Isidore, Asevedo, and Nunes, to treat me as they 

 would himself. From every one of these gentlemen 

 I am happy to acknowledge that I received most dis- 

 interested kindness, and I ought to speak well for ever 

 of Portuguese hospitality. I have noted each little act 

 of civility received, because somehow or other we have 

 come to hold the Portuguese character in rather a low 



